Pros: Good tracking, comfortableCons: High price, only one auxilary buttonVerdict: Great mouse with high price.

The most recent technological advancement in mousing over the past couple of years has been widespread consumer use of optical mice. Microsoft and Logitech have been battling for years over the mouse industry. Logitech is trying to gain even more popularity by adding increased tracking and better ergonomics into their optical mice. Today we take a look at one of their newest mice, the MouseMan Dual Optical. It seems as though they are going by the saying two is better than one. They have incorporated two optical sensors inside this mouse to further increase tracking.

Installation

Installation was as easy as plugging the mouse in and inserting the CD. It requires one free USB port (or ps2 port if you use an adaptor) to function. All that needs to be done is simply plug the mouse into an open USB port insert the installation disc that came with your mouse. If for some reason you didn’t get a installation disc with your mouse you can download MouseWare from Logitech’s website.

Drivers

Logitech includes the basic MouseWare package that they include with all of their mice with the MouseMan Dual Optical. It consists of options to adjust mousing speed and set the orientation and so forth. One of the most useful tabs is the buttons tab. It allows you to bind your buttons to whatever you wish.

As you can see from the screenshot above you have 4 customizable buttons. Most people won’t want to mess with button one or three. The scroll wheel and thumb button are the ones you may want to customize. I personally like my wheel to scroll web pages while surfing the ‘net, however, some people may like Logitech’s WebWheel. It allows you to use all of the browser’s basic commands with the click of your wheel. It will still allow you to scroll the pages; only it won’t allow you to use AutoScroll.

The above picture shows the WebWheel in action. It can truly be handy to have, and is included in MouseWare for all Logitech mice with wheels. Therefore, don’t feel you need to go out and buy a MouseMan Dual Optical just to get the WebWheel.

The above screenshot is just one of the many useful bindings Logitech has included in the MouseWare for the MouseMan Dual Optical. This allows you to switch applications without having to press alt+tab; you can just use the thumb button on your mouse. This has been a great convenience for me as I use many applications at once. There are many more things you can bind the thumb button to including: back, forward, cut, paste, and explorer.